It wasn't easy to follow its 1996 set, which contained rookie cards for future Hall of Famers, such as Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, and Ray Allen.
But the 1997 Topps basketball set featured a few more Hall of Fame rookies in Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady and Chauncey Billups.
Not too shabby...
And, as if that wasn't enough of a reason to like this set already, the fact that 34 players in the 220-card checklist are Hall of Famers should do it.
That's right, more than 15% of the 1997 Topps basketball checklist is enshrined in Springfield.
So, while it may not be a huge checklist, it packs plenty of punch.
And in this guide, we look at the 15 most valuable.
Let's jump right in!
1997 Topps #115 Tim Duncan Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $75
The "Big Fundamental" was fundamentally untouchable when he stepped on an NBA court for the first time.
Selected first overall out of Wake Forest in the 1997 NBA Draft, Tim Duncan was ready-made as the complete power forward in the league.
The 21-year-old already had a developed bag of tricks and multiple finishing moves in and around the paint.
Duncan also joined Hall-of-Fame teammate David Robinson on defense to create the NBA's most impenetrable rim-protecting duo.
San Antonio finished 2nd in defensive rating in Duncan's rookie season, up from dead last in the 1996-97 campaign.
The 99.4 mark was the best in franchise history up to that point.
Duncan ended his near-unanimous Rookie-of-the-Year campaign averaging 21.1 points, 11.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 2.5 blocks.
The NBA All-Defensive Second Teamer placed in the top five of the league's MVP voting and became the first rookie since Larry Bird (1980) to make an All-NBA First Team.
Most importantly to San Antonio, Duncan impacted raw wins and losses, rocketing the 56-26 Spurs to a 36-win improvement and a run to the Western Conference Semifinals.
1997 Topps #171 Kobe Bryant
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $75
19-year-old Los Angeles Lakers swingman Kobe Bryant didn't care that he was the youngest starter in All-Star Game history.
He wasn't going to act all shy and wide-eyed when he knew he could ball.
Instead of deferring to the game's legendary cast of Hall-of-Famers and veterans, Bryant went right at the biggest dog in the yard, taking it to a flu-stricken Michael Jordan from the opening tip.
"It was fun," Jordan said later. "I was trying to fend him off as much as I could. He came at me pretty early. If I see someone that's maybe sick or whatever, you've got to attack him. I like his attitude."
It was a statement of intent from a head-turning sophomore season.
Finishing second to Phoenix's Danny Manning for NBA Sixth Man of the Year, Bryant averaged 15.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 0.9 steals in 26 minutes per game.
He started just one of his 79 regular-season games, but the development of his two-man game with franchise big man Shaquille O'Neal set the 61-win Lakers up for sustained success.
It was a vital development that helped Los Angeles punch its ticket to its first Western Conference Finals appearance since 1991.
1997 Topps #123 Michael Jordan
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $65
Michael Jordan's 1997-98 "retirement" season didn't simply reaffirm his status as the NBA's GOAT.
It reinforced his standing as the league's most vital cultural ambassador, a seismic impact that carries on today.
Take "The Last Dance," for one.
For those quarantined during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, the multi-part NETFLIX series was required viewing.
It gave basketball-starved fans an insightful, entertaining, and controversial look at the events surrounding the Bulls' head-spinning run to a sixth NBA title.
It also opened the door to a Jordan we've never heard from in a public forum.
The particulars of Jordan's final stand with the Bulls are now NBA folktale.
The 34-year-old shooting guard overcame Scottie Pippen's injuries, an aging & tired roster, and off-the-court shenanigans to win his 10th scoring title and fifth MVP award.
The Bulls were no longer bulletproof, but Jordan didn't care.
He was defiant and uncompromising to the end, punctuating the story with a 45-point blitzkrieg in the deciding Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
The six-time Finals MVP's game-winning steal and swish scarred a generation of Utah Jazz fans.
It's also a required highlight for nearly every NBA retrospective you watch.
1997 Topps #125 Tracy McGrady Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $35
A ninth-overall pick should earn a kid some respect.
That wasn't the case for 18-year-old Tracy McGrady.
"My first coach told me I was going to be out of the league in three years," McGrady recalls. "I was so excited in the second half to be playing."
When the Toronto Raptors grabbed McGrady in the 1997 NBA Draft, they knew it would be a protracted development process.
However, head coach Darrell Walker wasn't feeling it and buried McGrady deep in the rotation during his rookie year.
The Florida native played around ten minutes per game under Walker before the Raptors head man was ousted amid an 11-38 start.
New coach Butch Carter fared no better (5-28), but at least he gave McGrady some rope to show what he could do.
Overall, it was a trying and unproductive first year for the future Hall-of-Fame swingman.
McGrady averaged 7.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.0 blocks, and 0.8 steals per game.
He showed promise down the stretch, but the Raptors' 16-66 finish left everyone feeling cold.
1997 Topps #1 Scottie Pippen
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $30
The Chicago Bulls wouldn't play ball with Scottie Pippen on a new contract.
Pippen responded in kind.
The Bulls' small forward injured his ankle during the 1997 NBA Finals and could have opted to undergo surgery after the team's title win.
This would have allowed him to start the regular season, ready to go.
Instead, the pending free agent delayed surgery as he pushed for a lucrative new contract with Bulls owner Jerry Krause.
Krause wouldn't budge, and Pippen responded by not doing anything.
"I had a ruptured tendon in my ankle, and I decided to have surgery late because I was like, 'You know what? I'm not gonna f**k my summer up trying to rehab for a season, you know?" Pippen said. "They're not gonna be looking forward to having me, so I'm going to enjoy my summer, and I'll use the season to prepare."
Pippen played just 44 regular-season games, yet still did more than enough for another All-Defensive First Team nod.
He also landed on the All-NBA Third Team and in the top ten of the league MVP race.
In the playoffs, Pippen averaged 16.8 points, 7.1 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and 2.1 steals in an NBA-high 21 games en route to his sixth NBA championship.
1997 Topps #54 Allen Iverson
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $30
Larry Brown and Allen Iverson were the best things that could have happened to one another.
Brown helped Iverson evolve into the player who won four scoring titles and an NBA MVP award.
Iverson gave the journeyman coach a springboard to a late-career renaissance.
It was a beneficial pairing for both of them.
However, the mixture of oil and water led to plenty of conflict in their early days together.
"I just felt if I had a slight regret to anything that has anything to do with my career, I wouldn't have been playing tug-of-war with him early in my career," Iverson said. "He wanted everything that I wanted for myself and for our team, and I didn't take constructive criticism the way that I was supposed to."
Brown joined the Sixers for the 1997-98 stint fresh off a four-year stint with the Indiana Pacers.
The Sixers were able to post a nine-game improvement to 31-51 in Brown's first year, but it was more despite the two's relationship than because of it.
Nonetheless, Iverson had a strong year, averaging 22.0 points on a career-best 46.1% shooting with 6.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds in 39.4 minutes per game.
1997 Topps #106 Dennis Rodman
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $30
Before his time with the Chicago Bulls, Dennis Rodman's NBA career was a seemingly endless string of suspensions, controversies, and general weirdness.
After the Bulls won the title in 1998, "The Worm" left for the Los Angeles Lakers, and the headaches began anew.
So, how exactly did Rodman keep it together for a trio of Bulls title runs?
"Very few people can deal with Dennis," Michael Jordan said succinctly. "We did a good job with that. I don't know if there's anyone else out there who can deal with him. He carries a lot of baggage."
It wasn't that Rodman had changed much or the distractions weren't there.
The environment helped him succeed and deal with his demons in a (mostly) productive manner.
That was reflected in the 36-year-old power forward's tenacious defense during the 1997-98 campaign.
Finishing fifth for NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Rodman took home his seventh consecutive rebounding title (15.0) while posting the second-highest defensive win shares (5.9) for his 14-year career.
Rodman was basically an NBA linebacker with a shutdown cornerback's touch.
He bullied and reduced each opponent's biggest offensive threats, essentially cutting the court in half.
1997 Topps #109 Shaquille O'Neal
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $30
Los Angeles Lakers head coach Del Harris knew precisely where his bread was buttered during the 1997-98 campaign.
Harris strapped the entire Lakers offensive attack to Shaquille O'Neal's sizeable shoulders, upping Shaq's usage rate to a career-high 32.9%.
O'Neal made good on this increased focus, leading the NBA in both PER (28.8) and field-goal percentage (.584) for the first of five consecutive seasons.
The Lakers' offensive rating improved from ninth in 1996-97 to second.
Their inside-out offense weakened opposing front lines and opened the door for late-game runs and easy buckets.
O'Neal was the main beneficiary, averaging team highs in points per game (28.3) and rebounds (11.4).
He also finished eighth in the NBA with 2.4 blocks per game.
As O'Neal's partnership with Kobe Bryant progressed, he'd become an even more effective weapon down low.
That's scary to think about in retrospect, considering that the now five-time All-Star finished fourth in the league's MVP rankings and made his first All-NBA First Team.
1997 Topps #17 Charles Barkley
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25
The Houston Rockets theoretically gave Charles Barkley his best chance at an NBA title, but Father Time had other ideas.
Houston's super-team trio of Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Clyde Drexler entered 1997-98 with 40 combined regular seasons and 37 postseasons on the odometer.
Injuries and age reared their ugly head all season long, mainly on the defensive end.
With Drexler and Barkley huffing and puffing along and Olajuwon out for nearly half of the regular season, the Rockets slipped from 10th in defensive rating the year before to the bottom five of the league.
Houston's 8th-rated offense kept them afloat during a 12-5 start, but collective wear and tear caught up on the road to a 41-41 finish and disappointing 8th seed in the West.
Barkley averaged his fewest points (15.2) since his 1984-85 rookie season and the fewest steals (1.0) of his career thus far.
His 11.7 rebounds a contest would have been good for fourth in the NBA, but he didn't qualify for the league's leaderboard due to time missed.
It got worse in the playoffs.
Houston raced out to a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five First Round matchup with the 1st-seeded Jazz but lost the next two after Barkley tore his triceps in Game 4.
1997 Topps #148 Kevin Garnett
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25
The Minnesota Timberwolves and Kevin Garnett went down to the wire with contract negotiations in 1997 before settling on a record-breaking six-year, $126 million deal.
The two sides finalized things a mere hour before the October 1st deadline.
It was a bold move for a Timberwolves squad that had made the playoffs exactly once in its eight years of existence.
By extending Garnett for such an unheard-of number, the Wolves were chaining themselves to his development for better and worse.
Lucky for Minnesota, Kevin Garnett was Kevin Garnett.
The 21-year-old power forward continued to grow as a scoring threat and defensive force in 1997-98, and this was shown in the win column.
Minnesota posted its first-ever winning season, grabbing the seventh seed in the West with a 45-37 finish.
The Wolves lost their First Round matchup with Seattle in a deciding fifth game, but the mere fact they were in that position meant everything to the previously beleaguered franchise.
Garnett ended the year as a two-time All-Star and was considered for Defensive Player of the Year.
He averaged 18.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.8 blocks, and 1.7 steals in 39.3 minutes per game.
1997 Topps #181 Chauncey Billups Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25
When it comes to
1997 Topps #203 Hakeem Olajuwon
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25
Hakeem Olajuwon had no choice but to listen to his body early in the 1997-98 season.
The former NBA MVP and two-time Defensive Player of the Year started the year a couple of steps slow.
Olajuwon visibly labored going up and down the court and didn't look like himself when matching up with opposing centers down low.
The problem was Olajuwon's ailing left knee.
The no-doubt Hall-of-Famer had played for quite some time through steady deterioration in the joint, gritting his teeth through the pain.
He knew how integral he was to the team's success and how costly an extended absence could be to their title hopes.
Early in the 1997-98 campaign, his knee had had enough.
The 34-year-old center underwent arthroscopic surgery, which required two months of rehab time.
It was ultimately a lost season for the generational great.
Olajuwon posted the fewest points (16.4) and worst field-goal percentage (48.3%) of his career so far.
His 20.8 PER was also a new career low.
With their superstar center compromised and the rest of the roster hammered by injuries, Houston failed to win a postseason series for the first time in six years.
1997 Topps Basketball Cards In Review
The 1997-98 season was historic, with so many milestones and changes occurring simultaneously.
It was undoubtedly an enjoyable and interesting time to be a fan.
You had so many big-name guys like Jordan, Barkley, Olajuwon and others on the backends of their careers.
And so many fresh faces like Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, and Allen Iverson were ready to be the next wave of superstars.
Therefore, this set's number of fantastic rookie cards and second-year cards speaks for itself.
What I think is somewhat overlooked is how many of the guys in the checklist were also big names but not quite Hall of Fame worthy.
Rasheed Wallace.
Sam Cassell.
Antoine Walker.
Glenn Robinson.
Michael Finley
I could keep going.
The point is, there is so much talent and history packed into the 220-card checklist that, even if some of the monetary values aren't mind-blowing, the nostalgic value is off the charts.